The invention relates to a see-through packaging for the self-service sale of furniture hinges in small quantities, consisting of a plastic box of suitable size for the accommodation of the hinges and, if desired, of the appropriate fasteners, having a rectangular or square bottom and sidewalls extending upwardly at right angles from the bottom, and being closed by a cover of transparent plastic material.
Such see-through packages are used in many forms and designs for the self-service sale of small hardware or fittings, the packages often having also a hanger tab whereby they can be hung on suitable self-service racks such that their content is visible through the cover made of transparent plastic.
Cabinet hinges, especially the modern cantilever or cross-link hinges for float-out doors, have hitherto been sold to private individuals only to a small extent, since their correct installation on the supporting wall of the cabinet and on the corresponding door requires great care and precise workmanship if the door is to be correctly mounted after installation. In furniture factories the installation of hinges is performed with precision devices whose cost is prohibitive for private individuals who engage only occasionally in the construction of cabinets.
However, since the number of hobbyists who undertake even difficult work is increasing, cantilever hinges and other modern types of hinges are being purchased to an increasing degree by private individuals. But in order that the hinges may be installed correctly, precise instructions and layout diagrams for their installation must accompany them in their package.
It is the object of the invention, therefore, to create a see-through package for self-service sale of modern cabinet hinges which will facilitate the installation of the hinges by being designed as templates for the bores to be made in the furniture for such hinges. This is to serve the purpose of preventing faulty installation due to misunderstanding of instructions, and of facilitating the marking or drilling of the necessary mounting holes in the precisely correct locations.
Setting out from a see-through package of the initially mentioned kind, this object is achieved by the invention in that one of the sidewalls of the plastic box has a reduced height in comparison to the other sidewalls, that at the margin of the cover associated with this sidewall a flat wall section projecting downwardly at right angles is provided, which when the cover is in the proper closed position on the box closes the opening formed above the sidewall of reduced height, and that the cover is thereby formed into a marking or drilling template for the door part and/or wall part of the hinges contained in the box, that holes are provided at a distance from the inner surface of the wall section of the cover, which corresponds to the distance measured from the corresponding door edge at which the holes are to be drilled in the door for the door part of the hinge and/or to the distance or distances measured from the front edge of the supporting wall at which the holes are to be drilled in the cabinet supporting wall for the supporting wall part of the hinge. The inside of the downwardly projecting wall section of the cover thus serves as a reference surface that can be placed against the edge of the cabinet door or front edge of the supporting wall, as the case may be, and the bores to be drilled for the mounting screws of the parts of the hinge can be marked through the holes in the cover. In many cases the cover will be usable directly as a drilling template, since the holes in the cover will certainly suffice for the small amount of drilling to be done, even if the cover is made of relatively delicate plastic material.
To facilitate the user's decision as to which holes in the cover relate to which part of the hinge, provision is made in further development of the invention, that the outline of a plan view of the part of the hinge that is to be installed is marked on the cover in correct alignment with the corresponding holes in the cover.
Since the cover template of the invention gives only the precise distance of the mounting holes from the door edge or from the front edge of the supporting wall, the vertical level at which the hinge is to be mounted must still be measured and marked by hand. This dimension, however, is not critical. Now, in order to assure that the cover template will also be placed at the correct height, provision is made in an advantageous further development of the invention for the marking of straight locating lines on the cover at right angles to the inside of the downwardly projecting wall section, these lines passing through the centers of the hole or holes in the cover and running from the particular cover hole to the inside of the alignment tab. If these locating lines are aligned with the previously measured and marked heights, one has the assurance that the screw holes to be marked or drilled will be at the correct height.
The marking of the outline of the hinge part and of the locating lines are preferably cast in relief or intaglio in the plastic material. Alternatively, they can be printed on the cover.
In addition, instructions for the mounting of the hinges can be imprinted by molding or printing on the cover and/or on the inside of the bottom of the plastic box. This has the advantage over separately printed mounting instructions that they cannot be lost.